(New York)

While a lot of sentiment is starting to look more positive, Deutsche Bank has just come out with the exact opposite opinion. The bank has gone on the record warning that a recession will arrive very shortly, and that stock prices should be at least 13% lower than they are. The bank’s chief global strategist said, “We are cautious on stocks. We would argue you want to be defensively positioned [and] we would argue that the U.S. equity market has run way, way ahead of growth”. He continued “Every time payrolls growth has gone below 1%, the U.S. has ended up in recession. We would argue the U.S. economy is dangerously close to...tipping into recession”. US jobs growth is currently at 1.3% and slowing.

FINSUM: This is a really bearish outlook from an investment bank, which tend to trend towards over-bullishness. We question the valuation argument, but this is certainly a view worth noting.

(New York)

Most of this summer was dominated by the dual fears of a trade war and a recession. A weakening of underlying economic data backed up the view that we may be headed for a recession, and the long yield curve inversion only heightened those fears. However, new economic data is providing a pretty strong rebuttal to those ideas. The last four economic releases, including home sales, jobless claims and beyond, have all come back more strongly than forecast.

FINSUM: The economy never looked that bad, as it was mostly the yield curve and trade war that pushed fears of a downturn. Accordingly, we don’t think these recent data releases will have much of an effect one way or the other.

(New York)

Every advisor is likely already aware of the huge ruction that occurred in money markets this week. A number of short-term stresses sent over-night borrowing rates up to 10% this week before the Fed had to intervene to inject tens of billions of Dollars of liquidity to calm things down. Most media outlets have explained this as a number of cyclical short-term factors, without really giving any specifics. The whole episode has been curiously vague. This has led to an unusually fertile environment for rumors and speculation.

FINSUM: So our readers will know that we have been reporting for years, and we must say that this has been one of the oddest, mostly poorly reported, and vague events we have ever covered. None of the cited reasons of this money market flare up make much sense relative to the scale of money the Fed has pumped in. One of the best rumors we have heard is that there may be a bank failure coming. Just before this market flare up, oil jumped almost 20% in a day, its single largest one-day move ever. That kind of black swan event could easily destabilize a large financial institution if it was positioned the wrong way, and ultimately led to the kind of short-term funding desperation we saw before the last Crisis. This analysis is probably all wrong, but the situation must be taken seriously.

(Washington)

Elizabeth Warren is currently the only candidate that is really rising in the polls, and that is terrifying Wall Street. The far-left candidate has the most comprehensive plans to change the status quo of the financial system and she is gaining traction with voters. That is making Wall Street very nervous. Famed investor Leon Cooperman said he expected a year-plus long bear market with losses of 25% or more if either Sanders or Warren wins the election. Biden currently still leads Warren, but the gap is close, with his advantage down to 31% to 25% of Democratic voters.

FINSUM: Our own feeling on this is that Warren may have the momentum to win the bid, but that it will likely prove quite hard for her to win the general election, as her policies are very progressive for middle-of-the-road voters.

(New York)

With the Fed coming in less dovish than expected this week, there is suddenly much more anxiety in the market. Without a clear direction on rates, and with lingering worries about the economy, the outlook for stocks and bonds is not clear. And as we all know, markets hate uncertainty. Accordingly, the search for the best recession-proof stocks continues, and we have a new proposal today: fast food stocks. As consumer spending falls in a recession, bargain-providing companies, like fast food, often do well. The sector also provides healthy dividends. Take a look at the usual suspects: McDonalds, Wendy’s, and Chipotle, and some you may not have thought of, like Cracker Barrel and Restaurant Brands International.

FINSUM: The “Dollar menu” suddenly becomes very attractive to the American consumer when times start getting tough. These stocks seem a good bet, especially because they have solid dividends, which should provide some protection in case a downturn doesn’t happen.